After 30 hours in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 I'm hungry for more

Not even Obelix was as often hungry as Henry of Skalitz. The grumbling of our protagonist demanding something to nibble on will probably start to annoy you soon. But just as Henry is constantly hungry, we will be equally hungry for his next adventures. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is the fulfillment of a fantasy about a total adventure in the medieval world, or rather, a long-awaited return to it because the Czech mega-production has most of the features of a perfect sequel: it's a direct continuation of the plot of the first Kingdom Come, it's bigger, even more beautiful, and improved in several aspects. At least that's how it seems for now!

In the case of other titles, impressions from the beginning of the game are written after 2-4 hours of gameplay. In the case of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 that took me almost 30 hours! This is not a result of a drawn-out beginning, but a condition to describe your feelings only until reaching a certain significant moment in the plot. Of course, you can reach it faster, in about 8 hours. However, thanks to an unprecedented gift from the developers—a whole month to complete the game for review—I managed to complete probably all the side quests in the first region of the map. And I regret that there weren't more of them.

Interrupted story continues

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 begins exactly where the first installment ends - Hans Capon, accompanied by Henry of Skalitz and his entourage, is heading to Trosky castle to deliver a letter to Otto von Bergow, asking about his position in such difficult times for the country. The Czech Kingdom is divided - part of the nobility supports the imprisoned King Wenceslaus IV, while part supports Sigismund of Luxembourg, who has taken his place. In the background, there are also Henry's personal nightmares and desire for revenge - a good knowledge of the first game from the series is highly recommended, although the devs have made an effort to familiarize new players with the events from the first installment.

All information was naturally woven into the first hours of the game. Henry experiences dream visions and can recount to companions he meets various situations from the past, including some decisions made then. It doesn't affect his stats in the new game except for one instance, where we decide on the first experience pool - it simply helps to recall or learn the storyline of the first part. Newcomers will definitely get acquainted with the main themes of the first part, but it's understood that not all nuances can be conveyed this way, including the intensity of emotions that continually trouble Henry.

Either way, after a fairly long prologue, we get access to another open-world area near the Trosky castle. The devs skillfully navigated the issue of Henry's character development, sensibly justifying why we have to painstakingly gather experience in many different fields from the beginning and at the same time build our reputation among the local people (good or bad, depending on our choices and actions).

Fight for balk wins over saving the world

Of course, you can head straight for the main quests, which split into two paths, and there's no need to stick to just one - in fact, you should complete both, only making a choice between them at the very end. The story stops at a dull point, so it's definitely beneficial to concentrate on side quests to develop Henry's combat abilities and other skills—it will surely be useful later on.

Similar to the first installment, the main character only develops those skills that he actually uses. If we spend twenty hours without shooting a bow, sneaking up on an enemy, picking a lock, or boosting our charisma, we might find that a quest or battle becomes significantly harder at a crucial moment. Education can also be supported passively, by paying for training and reading appropriate books - unfortunately, in KCD2 the option of more effective reading "on the throne," where even the king goes alone, has been removed.

Fortunately, the world of Bohemian Paradise, with its daily affairs, is completely absorbing. I can't count what I didn't do for myself and for the local residents during this first stage. I carried bags, participated in a tavern fight, tracked poachers, searched for lost lambs in the forest, fended off packs of wolves, dug graves, carried rotting animal carcasses to the gravedigger, got involved in a dispute over balk between farmers, interfered in a family conflict of nomadic Romanies... and I won't even mention what else.

A major advantage of the quests in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is their normality, even their down-to-earth nature. We're not saving a fictional world, not activating magical portals or artifacts, just carrying bags of flour or buying a simple girl a dress for a wedding - just life. At the same time, I was playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard and there every quest seemed contrived and similar to the previous one. In KCD2, we simply naturally immerse ourselves in the daily existence and problems of medieval society.

Moreover, a seemingly simple task can evolve into an extended, multi-phase narrative with a captivating conclusion. Sometimes it will be an amazing, spectacular cutscene, in a completely surprising style, other times a bloody massacre. To some extent, we also have freedom in reaching the goal: based on Henry's skills or the choices made, you can opt for persuasion, theft, or just violence. The end result will usually be the same, except for situations where someone may die or not (at least that was the case in the discussed part of the game). A dose of unpredictability, on the other hand, is brought by a quick journey, because then random encounters appear on the trail.

A bit new, a bit old-fashioned

The sequel brings a lot of small innovations and improvements. We can now create several sets of clothes and switch between them quickly with a single key. For example, you can have heavy armor and a dark, lightweight outfit for sneaking, ready to use at any time. By equipping belts and satchels, we gain slots for quick use of various types of weapons, food, or elixirs without the need to look into the equipment. In the game world, dryers and smokehouses have appeared, which extend the freshness of food. A wonderful and useful feature is the option of automatically following a companion during a quest - both on foot and on horseback.

Alchemy and sword sharpening were left as they were. The new feature, however, is blacksmithing. This is a multi-stage minigame in which we first heat up the material, then forge it, ensuring even strikes from each side along the entire length, and finally temper the final product. Up to now, I haven't discovered a major role for blacksmithing - I haven't obtained a recipe for a unique sword or axe that would improve my battle chances, but the crafted items can at least be sold for profit. Forging itself also has this relaxing Zen element to it, and sometimes it's worth just creating something for relaxation.

Two controversial things remained the same, which will probably upset some: saving and lockpicking. We still require a saving schnapps or a "remedium savegamium" brew to save the game, but there's always the emergency "save and exit" option - so not having booze in the inventory isn't as much of a hindrance as it was in the early days of the first installment.

Using a picklock, on the other hand, has probably become a bit more difficult if we don't have the appropriate skill level. With difficult and very difficult locks, the golden ball starts to tremble so much that opening it largely depends on luck. It's definitely worth investing a lot in learning thievery. At my current level, I can unlock difficult locks after several tries, but only using a mouse and keyboard - I had to surrender when using a controller.

He who fights with a sword, dies by Mutt

The combat mechanics in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 have been slightly altered and enriched with new weapon types. The number of attack directions has been reduced, and in the case of K&M control, the block has been moved from the Q key to the right mouse button. I also have the impression that there are more various clinch, close combat animations, although I might have missed them in the previous game where I was mainly focused on the bow. Overall, combat feels a bit smoother and more intuitive, but during group battles, it can still appear somewhat chaotic, particularly when we're too close to the enemies. The system works best when it can track one enemy, two at most. Sword fights got better, more “juicy” sound effects and scattering of sparks.

Henry gained the ability to stealthily eliminate opponents, depriving them of consciousness or life with a dagger, and just like fencing, it is done much more realistically than in other games. Sometimes, characters are able to break free from the hold and begin to protect themselves. Archery has remained unchanged - there are no magical aiming dots in the screen interface, we still aim with the arrowhead, taking into account gravitation. It's easier to aim with a crossbow - a new thing in the game, but this weapon in turn requires a long draw and at my current level, which doesn't allow for "one-shotting" enemies - it's somewhat useless. Until a certain point in the plot, no homemade guns appear. Surprisingly, our dog - Mutt, serves as an effective weapon, capable of attacking a specified opponent and bringing him down.

Bugs and optimization - is it better?

The previous installment of Kingdom Come had a lot of bugs in the launch version - how is it now? Definitely better. I didn't encounter any bugs in quests or scripts. The most significant issue I encountered was a boulder in the forest that appeared fine but wasn't a "collision" object, allowing you to walk through it and fall into a depression in the terrain, from which you couldn't escape. There are also levitating objects or clumps of grass, but these are just isolated cases on a huge map, not the norm.

The new installment looks nicer on a micro scale, but overall the graphics haven't changed much. The lighting has been improved, and the forest and the textures of the buildings still look as good as in the first part. The characters' faces, clothing details, and small elements like the appearance of dishes have been enhanced. The character animations look better, and in the camera work in cutscenes, a lot of heart and craftsmanship can be seen - often there are very refined, artistic shots. Conversations with NPCs might occasionally feel a bit static because of the "Bethesda" style of focusing the camera on their heads, but the ability to engage with them almost anywhere, no matter what they're doing, somewhat justifies the devs. When the conversation is a plot-driven cutscene, we already have the full dynamics of the scene. The wonderful soundtrack, which you can listen to endlessly, also doesn't disappoint.

On my PC with RTX 3070, i5-10600 processor, and 32 GB RAM, the game maintains a stable 60 frames at high settings - momentary stutters only occur during autosave. However, I feel that improved optimization was achieved through various tricks, as the edges of distant trees appear slightly more blurred than in the first installment - even with DLSS turned off. While riding a horse, there are occasional pop-ups of shadows or sharper textures, but only on the farthest backgrounds, and very rarely and selectively. It's not something that would bother me.

Changing a few parameters along with textures from "high" to "very high" still ensures 60 fps in the open world, but it can drop to 40-50 in villages, with larger groups of NPCs. I should also note that so far, there hasn't been any significant battle, nor have I visited the busy city of Kuttenberg - my 60 fps experience consists of open areas, forests, meadows, fields, and small villages in the Bohemian Paradise. We will see what will happen after that.

"Hey, this is my bed!"

At the moment, a flaw I can identify is the reputation system that doesn't function very realistically. We can save someone's life and receive money, gifts, and heartfelt thanks for it - but if we take a spoonful of food from their pot or nap on their bed, they will curse us and call the guards. I understand that the in-game system ensures Henry doesn't disrupt the NPCs' daily routines, but there's a significant dissonance, and it might be possible to ease these restrictions a bit when completing a quest for someone and gaining reputation. Even the shout "hey, this is my bed" would be more appropriate than insults and the threat of arrest. I also didn't like this kind of "baiting" the player in dialogues, suggesting that they can make a choice, when in fact the outcome of the conversation is only one.

In my opinion, the amount of blood visible on the screen also needs to be fixed. I assume that the effects of sword and axe fights weren't pleasant sights, but it's enough for Henry to make two or three smooth cuts to look like Carrie at the prom during the dialogues - a bit too red for my taste. I also didn't like the addition of wolves to the forest fauna. Although quests no longer require hunting, wolves and even wild dogs sometimes become the main enemies, and I felt uneasy having to resort to violence against them - a mechanic to scare them away with a torch would be helpful.

Regardless of these minor nitpicks, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 - so far, delivers! I was delighted with the game from the Czechs in 2018, and I still am. This is just a few side quests, not taking into account the continuation of the story and main quests, and we know the developers can particularly surprise us with those. I'm still curious if the sequel will match up to the motive of living in a monastery from the first part! Even with 30 hours in, it feels like just the beginning, and the main event is still to come!